Elon Musk Tells X Employees to Prove They’re Worth Stock Options: Report

A source also told The Verge that employees were still waiting for the annual equity update, which was expected in April.

It comes nearly two years after Musk famously gave the company’s staff an ultimatum.

In an overnight email, the billionaire told employees they should work “long hours at a high intensity” and be “extremely hardcore” and that those unwilling to do so should quit .

About half of the company took the second option, and those who remained saw Musk keep his word.

Former employees who worked under the Tesla CEO at X have spoken of being forced to sleep at the office to meet “impossible” deadlines. Musk also shared images on X of engineers working late into the night.

Other employees joked about having to monitor heart rate spikes on their Apple Watches amid the launch of Musk’s X paid subscription service.

X now plans to move its headquarters to Texas and close its San Francisco office, though X CEO Linda Yaccarino told employees the company will still have a presence in the Bay Area through a shared space with xAI in Palo Alto.

Former Uber and Skype engineer Gergely Orosz described X as “the definition of a ruthless workplace” in a post on the site.

“You’re pushing the people who work there to the max with expectations above most (all?) other tech companies…but STILL making those people prove they deserve market compensation. Just wow,” he wrote in response to The Verge report.

X did not respond to a request for comment, sent outside normal business hours.